i use prefilters on all my tanks... yes the fluval keep your media cleaner... and if you have shrimp they LOVE eating the stuff on them and in my shrimp tanks i never have to clean them... i use the corse stuff in my betta tanks and the filter media is WAY dirtier.. but as they are small tanks i wanted a smaller pre filter...

what SS pre filter are you using? i like the slim lines of them SO much better!

I use a coarse sponge, purchased for a large pond filter then cut to size over the intake of my larger filters. I use Aquaclear filter sponges over the intake of smaller filters.
This means the first mechanical filter in the system is the largest cell size.

Inside the filter the mechanical media will be medium and finer. This keeps them all in order so the debris is filtered out in a way that keeps all the media in use, and it usually all plugs up about at the same rate.

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